


Me Too

by cyborgchickenbanana



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angry Peter Parker, Angry Tony Stark, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Ben Parker Dies, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Past Child Abuse, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22366699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyborgchickenbanana/pseuds/cyborgchickenbanana
Summary: Tony and Peter are… a little upset with each other.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 36
Kudos: 347





	1. Me Too

**Author's Note:**

> This is kinda personal and embarrassing and old... sorta based off of personal experience and a bunch of other stuff. I had to walk away from this a million times. This has been through SO much editing and I'm still not satisfied with the ending.
> 
> Basically a vent piece. Not quite as good of writing as I remember.
> 
> Maybe I'll write a happy ending?

It wasn’t until after an uncomfortably quiet trip back to Stark Tower that the argument began.

“Mister Stark, I-”

“You  _ what _ ?” Tony snapped, arms folded over an already un-armoured chest.

Peter tugged his mask off forcefully, “Well, I was going to say I had everything under control before yo-you  _ rudely _ interrupted me.”

There was a shocked silence. Peter’s eyes widened as he realized that  _ yes _ , he, the nobody kid from Queens, really just said that to  _ the _ Tony Stark.

Tony took a menacing step forward, “Is that  _ so _ ?” He tilted his head ever so slightly to the side in an almost curious way. “Then explain to me why I had to run into a collapsing building to drag your skinny a-”

“ _ Language _ !” Steve shot a disapproving glare at Tony. 

Tony returned the look, opening his mouth to spit some snide response, before Peter beat him to it, “You didn’t _ have _ to come get me! I  _ knew _ what I was doing! I told you, I had everything under co-”

A harsh laugh escaped the billionaire's lips, “Under what? Control? Is _ that _ what you call that?  _ Control? _ ”

“ _ Yes! _ ”

“You jeopardized the entire mission!”

“Jeopardized?” Peter echoed, betrayal as clear on his face as if someone had slapped it there. The emotion was quickly swept away by a sudden wave of anger, “ _ Jeopardized? _ If anything it was  _ your _ fau-”

Tony stalked forward, jabbing his finger into Peter’s chest, voice dangerously low, “Do you really wanna finish that sentence?”

Peter swallowed harshly, “M-maybe-maybe I  _ do _ .”

“Then be my guest!” Tony waved his arm at the Avengers in classic showman style,his words once again booming, “Go ahead and tell us all how  _ awful _ I am!” He then abruptly brought his hand back to his side, voice softening. “You wouldn’t be the first.”

A tense silence fell heavily into the room as Peter faltered, eyes darting to his shoes.

“Did you hear me?” Tony demanded. Silence. He took another step forward, arms waving wildly, “I want to hear it. Really, I do. I’m  _ inviting _ you to offend me. Tell us how  _ mean _ I am. How  _ apathetic _ I am. I’m just  _ so _ stupid! I just don’t  _ understand! _ Aren’t I such a  _ tyrant?! _ ”

Clenched fists shaking at his sides, Peter continued to glare holes into the floor, shifting his feet farther apart, as if settling into a fighting stance. Bracing himself.

Natasha opened her mouth to interject, but was quickly cut off before she could start.

Tony grabbed Peter’s chin and yanked his face upward, “Look at me when I’m speaking to you.”

“I’m so-I’m sorry I wasn’t giving y-you enough attention, Mister Stark.” Peter stuttered out in a voice that might have been meant to be aggressive, before muttering, “Because-because that’s what you want, right?” Then he was loud again, “You just  _ have _ to have everyone looking at  _ you _ all the time?”

Tony jerked back from the boy. “Are you sure  _ you’re _ not the one craving attention? What, with you throwing yourself into danger all the time just for the hell of it?”

“I was-I’m doing my  _ job! _ ”

“And what  _ is _ your job exactly? Explain that to me. What do you think you’re supposed to be doing?”

“I’m supposed to protect people, but I-but I can’t do that with  _ you _ in the way.”

“ _ I’m _ in the way? It’s quite the opposite, Peter. See, I gave  _ you _ direct orders and  _ you _ disobeyed m-”

“ _ Because your orders were wrong! _ ”

Peter turned on his heels and made a move for the door that would have been successful if Tony hadn’t snatched his wrist with a growl, “We’re not done talking.”

Rhodey finally stepped behind Tony, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “Alright, that’s enough.”

“Agreed,” Peter squeaked, wriggling furiously in Tony’s grip.

“No one asked you,” Tony snarled coldly. Who he aimed it at, no one could be sure.

Peter continued to attempt to break his wrist free from Tony’s iron grip in a panicked manner. “Let go. Mr. Stark, let go. I get it, I screwed up, now let  _ go _ of me.”

Tony’s grip on Peter’s grew tighter the more he struggled. “You don’t call the shots around here, Peter. You don’t tell me what to do. You don’t decide when the conversation’s  over. You don’t get to just run into collapsing buildings whenever you feel like it.”

“And why not? Why can’t I?”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled in exasperation, “Because I said so.”

“You’re not my dad, Tony!” Peter growled.

Peter had never called him “Tony” before. Peter had never turned down the idea of his mentor doubling as a father figure.

Letting go of his wrist, Tony faltered, “Peter, I-”

“No! You’re not  _ listening _ to me! Why can’t you just trust me? Like- _ actually _ trust me? The  _ moment _ I slip up even a  _ tiny _ bit, you put me away in a time out. I’m not a dumb little kid! I’m  _ sixteen _ ! I’m just as grown up as everyone else here.  _ I  _ want to be trusted.  _ I  _ want to be respected.  _ I  _ want to be treated just like  _ everyone  _ else.  _ I deserve it! _ I’m an Avenger, too! I do all the things you do. I’m just as  _ fast _ as you! I’m just as  _ strong _ as you! I’m just as  _ smart _ as you! I’m just as  _ good _ as  _ you _ !” Peter was a flurry of hands and words.

“Then why don’t you act like it?” Tony said coldly, throwing his prideful facade up once again.

“Because-because you don’t  _ let  _ me!” Peter even stomped his foot for emphasis. “You’re always hovering around me and dragging me away from the fight before I can even prove myself! I don’t  _ need _ you to protect me! I don’t  _ need _ you to babysit me! I-I don’t  _ need _ you!”

Peter slapped a hand over his mouth, terror dawning on his face as Tony’s eyes widened. The silence buzzed loudly in the room as the two simply stared at each other in shock.

Tony’s voice finally came out in a quiet, deadly way, full of venom and something else, “Then why don’t you leave? Like everyone else.”

The boy was frozen in place, liquid panic filling his eyes.

Tony yelled, almost screaming, “I SAID  _ LEAVE _ !”

Like a switch was flipped, Peter bolted away without hesitation, never looking back.


	2. You Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cycles are hard to break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys waited way too long for this. I am SO sorry. So sorry. I honeslty hope you like the second part. It was supposed to come out a week sooner but I've been a tad stressed with the... current state of the world, I suppose.
> 
> This was very, very personal for me. I kinda put off writing a second part because creating/resolving tension is hard to write (for me at least). As someone who has an emotionally abusive father (not as awful as Tony's) (I haven't seen him in a couple years) I can understand where Tony is coming from. He's a very important character to me for a million reasons. There are times when I find myself saying/doing things my dad did to people I care a lot about and it sucks. It really, really does. The things our parents do to us we (even if we're not conscious) end up replicating in similar situations outside of our family. Trying to break this cycle of habitual behaviors and emotions is difficult. I've found that it's not just a one-time thing. I can't just stop myself from yelling once and then BOOM never deal with it again. It's hard and a continuous process I'm going through.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you're satisfied with this ending. I hope I did a good job. If you like to give me feedback I would appreciate it, but no pressure.

All the Avengers’ efforts to make Tony talk to Peter were fruitless. They were doing more harm than good, actually, because it just made the engineer feel worse and worse until he locked himself in his lab. He had made quite a loud statement about never leaving his lab ever again and that the Avengers shouldn’t bother moving his disgusting corpse once he inevitably died.

They probably thought he was going to get blackout drunk but they were wrong once again. Of course, Tony had attempted to get drunk but as soon as his lips touched the bottle he set it right back down. The mere thought of alcohol was enough to make his insides want to twist inside out.

They probably thought he was being a self-absorbed snot and just wanted attention. The Avengers obviously didn’t know much about Tony Stark. He started hyperventilating after seeing his reflection. He wasn’t locking himself away to force Peter to come to  _ him _ . Not at all. He wasn’t locking himself in there to keep everyone out-he was keeping himself  _ in _ .

Tony was too much like  _ him _ . He looked just like him. He talked just like him. He acted just like him. The drinking, the yelling, the grabbing. When people said that you become your parents, Tony didn’t think it was  _ true _ . All of his attempts to be better than his father were stupid and useless in the end.  _ Oh, god. _ He was becoming  _ Howard _ . 

Blinking tears and memories away rapidly, Tony leisurely rolled his chair over to the next display and next project because just one wasn’t ever enough. 

Tony was  _ never enough for Howard _ .

Tony was  _ never enough for anyone _ .

Tony would  _ never be enough _ .

Tony would  _ always fail _ .

This was why  _ Howard didn’t love him _ .

This was why  _ no one liked him _ .

_ This was why  _ Tony was going to die alone.

Tony was going to  _ die alone _ .

“Peter Parker is requesting access to the lab,” the mechanical voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. filled the air.

Tony’s entire body tensed. “ _ No _ .” Whether it was a response or a reaction didn’t seem to matter.

“Peter Parker is entering the lab, sir,” the A.I. informed.

Before Tony could yell at F.R.I.D.A.Y. in protest or hide under a desk, a small brunet carefully walked into the dimly lit lab. “Mister Stark? Mister Rhodes said you were in here… are you okay?”

_ I’m not the one you should be asking. _ The words died in Tony’s mouth and he kept silent, hunching over a bit to make it seem like he was busy.

It didn’t work. “Oh, hi, Mister Stark. I was, um, wondering-I was wondering if I could talk to you. If-if that’s okay?”

_ Why would you want to be anywhere near  _ me _? _ “Uh, sure. What’s… up?”

The two of them stared at each other awkwardly for a moment. Peter shuffled around, tugged at his sweater and bit his cheek. The anticipation of what Peter was about to say thickened the already stiff tension.

“So,” Peter began quietly. Tony’s hands began sweating. “Um…”

“Um…” The genius billionaire playboy philanthropist responded intelligently.

Tugging at his sweater once again, the young Avenger let out an articulate “How... was your day?”

Letting out a jittery laughed, Tony reached to clasp the back of his neck, “It’s been, uh-”

Peter had flinched when Tony moved his hand.

He was  _ afraid _ .

He was  _ afraid of Tony _ .

He thought  _ Tony was going to hurt him _ .

He thought  _ Tony was an awful person _ .

Because he was  _ right _ .

Tony  _ had hurt him _ .

This was why  _ no one liked Tony _ .

This is why  _ no one loved Tony _ .

_ No one _ loved him.

Tony would  _ die alone _ .

“It’s had its ups and downs,” Tony finished. “What about you?”

Tony’s mentee swallowed heavily and laughed lightly. “I um-well it’s-um, uh, I’m fine.”

Obviously Peter Parker was anything but fine. But here he was, talking to the person who caused him all the pain and trying to cover up the fact that he was in pain. 

He was stuttering. Peter always stuttered when he was nervous.

Tony made him feel  _ nervous _ .

He thought Tony was  _ dangerous _ .

He  _ didn’t feel safe around Tony _ .

He thought Tony was  _ going to hurt him _ .

He had been  _ proven right _ .

Tony  _ deserved this _ .

He  _ should _ feel this way about Tony.

Tony  _ always hurt everyone around him _ .

There was  _ no one left around Tony _ .

He  _ hurt them _ all.

Tony was going to  _ die alone _ .

Peter laughed. Tony laughed too. They were both laughing. There was nothing to laugh about, though. Why were they laughing? It wasn’t even real laughter.

“Hey, Mister Stark?” They were both done laughing now.

“Yeah, kid?” Tony mentally listed all the things Peter was about to say-things that had nothing to do with what Tony knew Peter was going to say.

Peter tugged at his sweater for what seemed like the hundredth time and mumbled, “I kinda wanted to talk about w-about what happened?” It was phrased like a question even though it was a statement.

The silence that followed that was much too thick to cut with a knife. It swallowed everything else and left a painful ringing in Tony’s ears. He  _ knew _ what was going to happen. He  _ knew _ how this was going to end. Yet, there was nothing Tony could do to stop it. Well, technically there  _ was _ , he could get up and walk out, but Tony was a coward. So he didn’t do that.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“So… um,” Tony muttered, trying not to wave his hands around nervously.

Peter sucked in a deep breath and sighed, “I just… I wanted to apologize f-”

Eyebrows raised, Tony frowned, “Apologize? For what?”

Pausing for a moment, Spider-Man bit his lip, “Well, I-I was very rude, and rash, and immature, and provocative, and irresponsible, and-“

“Are those your vocab words for the week?”

Tony’s sass went ignored, “I just… I just  _ had _ to say sorry before something happened-before I lost the chance…”

After waiting a moment for Peter to continue, Tony realized his mentee’s eyes were threatening to overflow. “What do you mean?”

The kid squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

“What do you mean, Peter?”

Peter shrugged, then wiped his eyes furiously with his sleeve. “It’s just that… my uncle Ben and I had an argument- a really,  _ really _ bad one-and then I just-I just locked myself in my room-“ 

The brunet covered his mouth with his hand and took a deep breath before whispering, “The last words I ever said to my uncle were  _ ‘I hate you’ _ . I never got a chance-I never said that I was  _ sorry _ . Because-because he left for work-after I slammed my door- and on the way there h-he was shot.”

Tony’s eyes widened.

“He was shot seven times in the chest and… didn’t survive.”

For a renowned engineer that had attended M.I.T. at the age of fifteen, Tony could be very, very stupid.

“Oh.” Iron Man responded quietly.

“I just…” Peter swallowed. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something were to happen and the last time I saw you we were both angry and I never told you how important you are to me and how much I love you and how sorry I am-“

Holding up his hand in a “stop” motion, Tony interrupted Peter’s splurge of anxious words, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. If  _ anyone _ should it sorry it’s  _ me _ . You did  _ nothing _ wrong-”

“I didn’t listen to you though.”

“Well, yeah,” the mentor sighed. “But you saved the civilians. You had the best intentions at heart and I’m proud of you for… being so good. I need to stop treating you like a helpless little kid-”

“I don’t mind.”

Raising his eyebrows, Tony continued, “ _ Yes _ you  _ do _ , Pete. I’m…” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m very sorry for the way I reacted. I hurt you.  _ I _ was wrong.”

Shrugging, Peter looked away, “It’s fine.”

“No. No, it’s definitely  _ not _ fine. It’s everything  _ but _ fine. No one should  _ ever _ treat you like that. Not even  _ me _ .  _ Especially _ not me. I was  _ very _ out of line. I fucked up. Bad. Real bad.”

Glancing back at Tony, Peter whispered, “I’ve never seen you so mad.”

Peter looked so fragile at that moment, despite what Tony had just said, everything in the engineer wanted to scoop the kid up and hold him close like he was much smaller than he really was.

“Yeah, I was pretty scary, wasn’t I? There’s, uh, really no excuse for that.”

“Yeah,” Peter echoed and reached his hand out. “But maybe there’s… an explanation?” He wrapped his hand around Tony’s.

Replicating one of Peter’s favorite gestures, Tony shrugged. Then they were both silent again. Waiting.

Letting out an over-dramatic sigh, Tony composed himself. He would have to tell Peter sooner or later. “I guess we both know a thing or two about losing people, don’t we, kid? I’ve… lost a couple people. Kinda makes me paranoid about losing more, ya know? I just… I try so hard not to get attached to others, but when I do… well, I sorta…  _ freak out _ over them. You’re real important to me, underoos. Knowing that you could’ve… well I sorta lost control, I guess.”

Tony sighed once again, blinking a bit too much to be normal. “My father died a while ago. He was a real ass. We weren’t close, but it still hurt to lose him. Back to my father being an asshole, he was… he was always yelling at me for  _ everything _ . Any reason you can think of. He was cold and calculating at his best and violent at his worse. I promised myself that I would never become him. I promised myself I wouldn’t let him ruin me. After he died… I just sorta walked away and put my feelings aside and that was that. I guess I didn’t realize how much Howard really affected me. It’s kinda like the law of conservation of energy, isn’t it? Just a goddamn cycle of shit.”

“The law of conservation of energy says that energy can be changed to other forms so… maybe you just need to work on expressing your concern in a… different way?” Peter suggested.

“I guess… I still screwed up, though, and I have  _ no idea _ how to make it up to you.”

“Well you could try this,” Peter spread his arms out and made a grabby motion with his hands, similar to a toddler’s. “Hug it out?”

Did Peter  _ actually _ want to touch Tony? Did he trust him? How could he  _ possibly _ not hate him? 

Not knowing what else to do, Tony slumped into Peter’s arms and just let his body go limp for a moment. It felt good, to be supported. But it also felt wrong. Tony straightened his back and pulled Peter as close as he could. The boy let out a gasp of surprise. Tony was done with being supported-he wanted to  _ be _ the supportive one now.

“I forgive you,” Peter muttered into Tony’s shoulder. “Do you forgive  _ me _ ?”

Tony smiled a real, genuine, heartfelt smile that didn’t exactly blaze like the sun but shimmered softly instead, like the moon. “I forgive you too.”


End file.
